Normally, medical students have a clear path through school four years of college, four years of medical school and then residency. The coronavirus disrupted this process on many levels. Nationally, and at the University of Oregon, students are finding it hard, or nearly impossible, to meet the high standards medical school sets for them.

The challenges these students have faced led some students to form a group called the Students for Ethical Admission. The group created an in-depth document that outlined the issues approximately 200 surveyed students experienced, and suggested three changes to the Association of American Medical Colleges: waiving the Medical College Admission Test for this admissions cycle, delaying the application and having the association commit to clearer communication and transparency with pre-medical students.

One of the largest issues is the MCAT. The MCAT is a standard test for pre-medical students, and is required by most colleges like the Oregon Health & Science University and Western University of Health Sciences, even under the current conditions. The AAMC is still holding the tests in brick-and-mortar testing sites. Allowing online testing would be jeopardizing the integrity and fairness of the test, according to a letter from the AAMC.

The MCAT is a grueling test, and some students pay for tutoring and practice. For students who don't come from families with the financial means to support them, this test is a huge investment in their future one that could be completely wasted if test times are changed or cancelled, according to Rachel Lutz, a pre-medical biochemistry major at UO.

Its devastating to give up a year of your time, but for many students, its the money, Lutz said. When you give up a year, you give up thousands of dollars of prep.

Lutz is concerned that this change would bar many people of color of poor backgrounds from entering into the medical field, creating an entire generation of doctors that are mostly White.

For Lutz, one of the largest problems shes faced is sending and receiving transcripts. Usually an easy process, the UO application system is all paper nothing digital and it's slowed down to a crawl, she said. Medical schools are on a rolling application-based system, meaning that the later students apply, the less likely schools will see their applications.

"I don't know exactly what's going on there, but the implications have been that they do not pick up the phone and they're overburdened in their email inbox. This has resulted in me emailing them over 10 times," she said. "It's resulted in at least two of my transcripts being sent to my med school applications that were missing key addendums."

Sahara Kumaran is also a pre-med student, and said her biggest issue is that she is unable to get the same experience online that she would get in a lab.

"A lot of classes are online right now, and that's okay if its a lecture class. But for lab-based classes, it's much harder to learn those same skills online," Kumaran said. "Part of those lab classes is actually physically doing the experiments yourself, so its much more difficult."

I feel like Im being left behind. I feel like our peers are being left behind, Lutz said, I think its really hard and I think a lot of applicants feel alone right now.

Originally posted here:

Pre-med students weigh their health with their future, as COVID-19 spikes - Oregon Daily Emerald